Electroplating is an electrolytic (electro-deposition) process. A DC voltage is applied across two electrodes immersed in an electrolyte: the object to be plated is the cathode (negative) and a bar of the plating metal is usually the anode (positive). Deposition happens because positively charged metal ions in the electrolyte migrate to the cathode and are reduced there (Mⁿ⁺ + n e⁻ → M), building up a thin metallic layer.

The essential requirement is therefore that the electrolyte must actually contain metal ions of the plating metal (for example, copper sulphate solution to plate copper). If those ions are absent:

• There is nothing at the cathode to be reduced into solid metal.
• Consequently no metal deposits on the cathode, which is the correct outcome.

The anode does not become "coated" with metal — in fact the soluble anode dissolves to release ions, the opposite of coating, and even that cannot start plating if no ions are yet present. A thick oxide layer is characteristic of anodising, a different process, not of a starved plating bath. The cathode dissolving is also wrong: at the cathode reduction occurs, so it tends to gain material, not go into solution. Hence the most likely result is simply no metal deposits on the cathode.