How do I get the Cayo Perico heist onto hard mode?

[StaticalWave702]

The game tells me to start it as soon as possible to get hard mode for it, but when I start the heist, it ends up on normal mode, even if I start it as soon as Pavel's message appears

[cruste]

as everything related to timers and cooldowns this ♥♥♥♥ is sometimes bugged
so try again until it works

[Aghinem]

The only time I have done it on hard mode is when I get the notification that we're ready to do another heist, but if you do it too soon, it will be much harder. So basically, immediately get after it when you have the green light. Otherwise if you wait, it will be normal mode.

[macatak]

48 min after finishing the heist with 2 or more players you will get a text from Pavel. If you miss the text go to the sub. If you complete the heist solo you need to wait 144 min for the text from Pavel. There's is 48 min windows to select Hard Mode, if you miss that it will default to Normal Mode

[Tofuballs901]

Not much difference from hard mode to normal