The synthesis of 3,3′-diacet­oxy-4,4′-bis­(hex­yloxy)biphenyl following the nickel-modified Ullmann reaction yielded a by-product which was iden­tified successfully by crystallographic analysis as 1-(4-hex­yloxy-3-hy­droxy­phen­yl)ethanone, C₁₄H₂₀O₃. This unexpected nonbiphenyl by-product exhibited IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and COSY (correlation spectroscopy) spectra fully consistent with the proposed structure. The compound crystallized in the orthorombic Pbca space group, with two independent formula units in the asymmetric unit (one of which was slightly disordered), and showed a supra­molecular architecture in which mol­ecules linked by hy­droxy-ethanone O–H⋯O inter­actions are organized in columns separated by the aliphatic tails.