Just stumbled upon this:
http://www.newsweek.com/jessica-jones-season-2-timeline-order-how-long-defenders-835820
The headline is that Melissa Rosenberg said that JJ2 is 6 months to a year after Defenders, which lines up perfect with May 2017. The rest of the article tries to track the whole Netflix timeline, but fails miserably as it uses interviews with actors as its only source of evidence.
They do have a point that Defenders treated JJ1 as somewhat recent, but you have to ignore all that.
Yeah. Its honestly not something the actors are really focused on. Nor are the producers given months seemingly passing weather and dialogue-wise, along with day/night cycle, yet the scripts have episodes picking up one right after the other. That's just a side effect of the length of time to shoot the seasons, though I wish they'd wise up and allow for more time passing between episodes (not even all, maybe just a few) to account for the obvious passage of time outdoors and weather wise...
So many articles get it so wrong. They don't only just stick to actor statements, but when they mention the shows, they incorrectly quote them. Like, I've seen a couple of articles say that Worst Behavior says "Two months ago", but it doesn't, it says "Months ago". Then that Iron Fist was "1 month ago" which was something Jessica Henwick said once but she also said "several months" in an interview, "a couple of months" at Comic-Con, Finn Jones said "two months" in Empire magazine, and the show itself says "months". They give no source on Mike Colter saying Jessica Jones was 2 months before Luke Cage: Season 1 - I know that he said "3-5 months" on the Empire magazine podcast, and the show itself tells us it's at least 5 months when he says he worked at Pop's for 5 months. That's just the mistakes they make in terms of their evidence, let alone the whole not taking into account date evidence.
I haven't yet finished the season, but I wondered if AKA Facetime might give a hint. I know of the May, June, and July dates, you guys are leaning towards May. In the episode, Malcolm's friend from university says, "Three more months till my master's." I've found it difficult to Google and I'm not good on master's - I assume she's referring to it being three months until exams, not three months until it's awarded. Does anyone who knows more about master's degrees know what sort of time this would hint towards? I'd imagine that it hints the season is more like May than June or July.
I imagine it would follow a normal college semester, with Fall semester running from Aug/Sept - Dec and Spring Semester running from Jan - May/June. If its currently in May that'd mean she's talking about getting it around August, which COULD work if she is completing some final credits in Summer semester that many universities and state colleges have, which run from May/June - Aug/Sept. Graduation would be soon after finals and classes end, so presumably sometime in mid-May to mid-June, following a normal Fall-Spring semester order, though many students nowadays do take summer courses to finish extra credits needed.
It certainly discounts the July date (think you said it was in 2x06?) since that would be an October completion, which doesn't really line up with usual semester dates in US (which vary slightly, maybe by up to a month, but for most part are pretty uniform depending on state/county).
EDIT: Just found this:
It can take anywhere from two semesters (or about 9 months from start to finish) to three years of full-time study to get a master's degree. Common lengths are 2 semesters, one complete calendar year (typically two semester + a summer term at the beginning or end), four semesters (two academic years) or six semesters (three academic years), although there are other configurations. Why so much variation? Well, the length of time it takes to complete a master's degree depends on several key factors.
https://www.prepscholar.com/gre/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-get-a-masters-degree/
So, that backs up the May placements based on her just about to finish and doing a summer term at end, with it likely finishing in August, three months from May.
Hale says it's been "months" since the season 4 finale. Still doesn't give us an idea of how long it's been since Fitz froze himself. But that specifies that it can currently be no later than April 2018 at the absolute latest.
Yeah, I like to think Fitz left and everyone returned in November, 2017. That lines up with the dating system of monkey faces Fitz used while imprisoned for six months, putting him leaving in November. I like to think they returned not long after to November, 2017, soon after the events of Thor - Ragnarok to account for the mention of an Asgardian sighting in recent AoS episode. Its entirely possible thats another Asgardian, but I think its more likely a subtle nod to events of Thor - Ragnarok, specifically when Thor and Loki are on Earth, immediately after Strange drops Loki into the portal (presumably the sighting occurred of Thor as he headed to the Sanctum). This is in line with last season's subtle mention of Doctor Strange's ending battle. They're still trying to reference and integrate with the films, they're just trying to be more subtle about it and not force it down the general audience's throat, whereas the hardcore fans like us pick up on it. That's my theory anyway.
