[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] krabman:
Yes, we know that one or more factors can affect the timer but unfortunately not what they are. We have removed some possibilities simply through people getting the counter while having done the things in question, this is the case for all the conditions I mentioned. Most get it in 7, a few have reported getting during a short period after 7 days which ends at 10 days, there are no reports from someone getting OEM unlock after that time. Were I you I would be installing a stock firmware and trying again.

I feel for you guys, to my knowledge I was the first one here to report getting their shiny new FD. I started the first "where is the OEM unlock thread" that was up before this one. I have been on this thread from day one. At that time we didn't know about the timer and we're trying all kinds of things to see if we could get it to show. I tried several software flashes provided by Ketan, installing many different firmwares, tried various resetting schemes, none of these things worked. Somewhere in there people began reporting the switch magically showing up on its own without any intervention that precipitated it. At first that sounded silly but the reports of the "magiic" switch quickly ramped up and it was soon understood we were up against a timer. We really only know slightly more now than then about that timer.

That wasn't the end though, we didn't know that even after you got the timer you could go down in flames if you didn't stay in recovery all the way through the process of installing a rom with knox removed. As I was busy installing all those firmwares and other things I had been resetting my timer so a number of people got their switch before I did and one after another went into a binaries error and back to a stock rom and 7 days in jail. I was the first one to make it to the other side with a successful flash based on nothing more than a guess that Knox might be leveraged during the binaries error process. I was just trying the next thing like everyone else and got lucky by stumbling into the answer and a lot of people contributed to getting that far.

What I'm saying here is that this thread has become a monster that I wouldn't expect anyone to read from end to end, it's long and it was a convoluted journey even for those of us who were here every day from the start. I no longer have the problem you face but I tasted your frustration. Because I tasted that pain I've stayed around and tried to keep things on track here by giving what little information we have. The only really good news I have is that once you do get your switch and get on a custom firmware this device is excellent and you can do most anything you want just as you have always done. I've made dozens of rom flashes at this point, I'm running viper, exposed, changed my CSC, etc. Once you get to the other side it's gravy.

I would like to ask folks to please read at least the start and the last ten pages or so to get a basis on what is going on. A lot of mind share is going toward debunking things which have come up over and over like whether or not it matters to log into a Samsung account as an example. Even a brief perusal of the thread will answer that question.