drupal 7 cusomized user profile template can not save changes

Question

I have created custom user "account" -page like this. My way is not exactly answer to your question but i think this is better way to accomplish what you looking for and gives you more flexibility.

In my custom module i have these hooks. (replace module with your own module name).

This disables default user form paths.

function module_admin_paths_alter(&$paths) {

  $paths['user'] = FALSE;
  $paths['user/*'] = FALSE;

}

Create your custom user manage url..

function module_menu() {
  $items = array();

  // User account url
  $items['manage/account'] = array(
    'title' => 'User account',
    'description' => 'Edit account settings',
    'page callback' => 'module_edit_account',
    'access callback' => 'user_is_logged_in',
    'type' => MENU_NORMAL_ITEM,
  );

  return $items;
}

User form and page. This includes some extra fields that is not handled in this example:

function module_edit_account() {

  drupal_set_title(t('Account'));

  global $user;

  $html = render(drupal_get_form('module_edit_account_form', $user));

  return $html;
}

function module_edit_account_form($form, &$form_state, $user_data) {

  // If no values.. use userdata..
  if (@empty($form_state['values'])) { 

    $values = $user_data;  

  } else {

    $values = $form_state['values']; 
  }

  $form = array();

  // We dont want to deal with hierarchical form values.
  $form['#tree'] = false;

  $form['user'] = array(
    '#type' => 'fieldset',
    '#title' => t('User information'),
    '#collapsible' => FALSE,
    '#collapsed' => FALSE,
    '#weight' => 2,
  );  

  $langs = language_list();
  $lang_options = array();

  foreach ($langs as $iso => $lang) {

    $lang_options[$iso] = $lang->name;
  }

  $form['user']['firstname'] = array(
    '#type' => 'textfield',
    '#title' => t('Firstname'),
    '#description' => t('Define firstname.'),
    '#default_value' => (@!empty($values['firstname']) ? $values['firstname'] : ''), 
    '#required' => false,
  );  

  $form['user']['lastname'] = array(
    '#type' => 'textfield',
    '#title' => t('Lastname'),
    '#description' => t('Define lastname.'),
    '#default_value' => (@!empty($values['lastname']) ? $values['lastname'] : ''), 
    '#required' => false,
  );   

  $form['user']['pass'] = array(
    '#type' => 'password_confirm',
    '#description' => t('If you want to change your current password type new password.'),
    '#required' => false,
  );        

  $form['user']['langcode'] = array(
    '#type' => 'select',
    '#title' => t('Language'),
    '#options' => $lang_options,
    '#default_value' => (@!empty($values['language']) ? $values['language'] : ''),  
    '#required' => true  
  );

  $form['user']['mail'] = array(
    '#type' => 'textfield',
    '#title' => t('Email'),
    '#description' => t('Define email address.'),
    '#default_value' => (@!empty($values['mail']) ? $values['mail'] : ''), 
    '#required' => true,
  );       

  $form['user']['phone'] = array(
    '#type' => 'textfield',
    '#title' => t('Phone number'),
    '#description' => t('Define telephone number.'),
    '#default_value' => (@!empty($values['phone']) ? $values['phone'] : ''), 
    '#required' => false,
  );    

  $form['user']['address'] = array(
    '#type' => 'textfield',
    '#title' => t('Address'),
    '#description' => t('Define address.'),
    '#default_value' => (@!empty($values['address']) ? $values['address'] : ''), 
    '#required' => false,
  );     

  $form['user']['postcode'] = array(
    '#type' => 'textfield',
    '#title' => t('Postcode'),
    '#description' => t('Define postcode.'),
    '#default_value' => (@!empty($values['postcode']) ? $values['postcode'] : ''), 
    '#required' => false,
  );    

  $form['user']['city'] = array(
    '#type' => 'textfield',
    '#title' => t('City'),
    '#description' => t('Define city.'),
    '#default_value' => (@!empty($values['city']) ? $values['city'] : ''), 
    '#required' => false,
  );    


  $form['btn_submit'] = array(
    '#type' => 'submit',
    '#attributes' => array('class' => array('button')),
    '#value' => t('Save changes'),
    '#submit' => array('module_account_form_submit'),
    '#validate' => array('module_account_form_validate'),
  );  

  return $form;
}

Form validation:

function module_account_form_validate($form, &$form_state) {

  // Check user email..
  if ($error = user_validate_mail($form_state['values']['mail'])) {
    form_set_error('mail', $error); 
  }
}

Form submit.. stripped version:

function module_account_form_submit($form, &$form_state) {

    global $user;

    $values = $form_state['values'];

    // Get user info. Use user global for security reasons and not id from form.
    $user_account = user_load($user->uid);

    $user_edit = array(
      'mail' => $values['mail'],
      'language' => $values['langcode']  
    );

    // If user want to change password..
    if (@!empty($values['pass'])) { 
      $user_edit['pass'] = $values['pass'];
    }

    // Get default timezone from system
    $user_account->timezone = date_default_timezone(false);    

    // Save existing user
    user_save($user_account, $user_edit);

    drupal_set_message(t('Settings saved'));
}