Template-based electrochemical synthesis has widely been used to produce metal nanowires and nanorods. Commercially available filtration membranes, such as anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) and polycarbonate track etch membranes, have commonly been utilized as hard templates for this purpose. In this process, a thick metal film is usually sputtered or vacuum evaporated onto one side of the membrane to block the pores and serve as the working electrode for the subsequent electrodeposition. Here, we show that during the deposition of the metal electrode for AAO membranes, the electrode metal diffuses into the pores and is deposited on the pore walls which leads to preferential electrodeposition of metal on the walls and therefore forms metal tubes. This phenomenon has been utilized to fabricate short nanotubes by carefully controlling the electrodeposition conditions. The process is a straightforward method for any electroplatable materials to form nanoscale tubular structures. The effects of working electrodes and electrodeposition conditions on the formation of tubular structures are discussed in detail. A new mechanism based on this simple fact is proposed to explain the formation of Ni tubes by Ni–Cu co-deposition. Also, we demonstrate how to distinguish magnetic nanotubes from nanorods by a simple magnetic measurement.