How to Fix System.InvalidOperationException key 'numUploadThreads' does not exist in the appSettings configuration

I have a Windows Form Program that is erroring out the moment you try to open it. It is C# code using .Net 4.5.2 and runs on a shared RDS system:

Here is the error I get with in debug:

System.InvalidOperationException
  HResult=0x80131509
  Message=The key 'numUploadThreads' does not exist in the appSettings configuration section.
  Source=System
  StackTrace:
   at System.Configuration.AppSettingsReader.GetValue(String key, Type type)

When I run it alone or using the debugger in Visual Studio 2017, there are no problems. Our staff share the RDS servers where this program is run. When I open it, no problem. When anyone else opens it, it fails. In order to better troubleshoot, I followed instructions in StackOverflow and I turned on Common Language Runtime Exceptions under Exception Settings and this is where I can force the error to occur for me.

In the project in Visual Studio I have a Properties/Settings.settings fiel and an App.config file

App.config:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="applicationSettings" type="System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsGroup, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >
      <section name="hdms.sourcecontrol.vault.promotiontool.Properties.Settings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" />
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="hdms.sourcecontrol.vault.promotiontool.Properties.Settings.VPTConnectionString"
      connectionString="Data Source=AZPRD1SQLCL1-SG\VAULT,61522;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=vpt"
      providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>
  <startup>
  <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.6.1"/></startup>
  <applicationSettings>
    <hdms.sourcecontrol.vault.promotiontool.Properties.Settings>
      <setting name="numUploadThreads" serializeAs="String">
        <value>1</value>
      </setting>
    </hdms.sourcecontrol.vault.promotiontool.Properties.Settings>
  </applicationSettings>
</configuration>

Settings.settings

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<SettingsFile xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2004/01/settings" CurrentProfile="(Default)" GeneratedClassNamespace="hdms.sourcecontrol.vault.promotiontool.Properties" GeneratedClassName="Settings">
  <Profiles />
  <Settings>
    <Setting Name="VPTConnectionString" Type="(Connection string)" Scope="Application">
      <DesignTimeValue Profile="(Default)">&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?&gt;
&lt;SerializableConnectionString xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"&gt;
  &lt;ConnectionString&gt;Data Source=AZPRD1SQLCL1-SG\VAULT,61522;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=vpt&lt;/ConnectionString&gt;
  &lt;ProviderName&gt;System.Data.SqlClient&lt;/ProviderName&gt;
&lt;/SerializableConnectionString&gt;</DesignTimeValue>
      <Value Profile="(Default)">Data Source=AZPRD1SQLCL1-SG\VAULT,61522;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=vpt</Value>
    </Setting>
    <Setting Name="numUploadThreads" Type="System.String" Scope="Application">
      <Value Profile="(Default)">1</Value>
    </Setting>
  </Settings>
</SettingsFile>

I cannot seem to add 'numUploadThreads' in either of these files that satisfy the error. The weirder part is that I am not using Threading.

How can I fix this error?