The main scientific activity in the field of topological insulators (TIs) consists of determining their electronic structure by means of magnetotransport and electron spectroscopy with a view to devices based on topological transport. There is, however, a caveat in this approach. There are systematic experimental discrepancies on the electronic structure of the most pristine surfaces of TI single crystals as determined by Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations and by angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES). We identify intense ultraviolet illumination—that is inherent to an ARPES experiment—as the source for these experimental differences. We explicitly show that illumination is the key parameter, or in other words, the trigger, for energetic shifts of electronic bands near the surface of a TI crystal. This finding revisits the common belief that surface decoration is the principal cause of surface band bending and explains why band bending is not a prime issue in illumination-free magnetotransport studies. Our study further clarifies the role of illumination on the electronic band structure of TIs by revealing its dual effect: downward band bending on very small time scales followed by band flattening at large time scales. Our results therefore allow us to present and predict the complete evolution of the band structure of TIs in a typical ARPES experiment. By virtue of our findings, we pinpoint two alternatives of how to approach flat-band conditions by means of photon-based techniques and we suggest a microscopic mechanism that can explain the underlying phenomena.