Web Deploy / Publish is adding a unknown connection string?

Question

Previously publishing my web api app was working perfectly. Today i converted my app from being "any cpu" to x86. Now when i'm publishing its adding a connection string to the web config which is causing my app to fail. At first i though i maybe accidently adding something to the web.config transform file but nope i haven't. Here is my transform file:

<configuration xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform">
  <!--
    In the example below, the "SetAttributes" transform will change the value of
    "connectionString" to use "ReleaseSQLServer" only when the "Match" locator
    finds an attribute "name" that has a value of "MyDB".

    <connectionStrings>
      <add name="MyDB"
        connectionString="Data Source=ReleaseSQLServer;Initial Catalog=MyReleaseDB;Integrated Security=True"
        xdt:Transform="SetAttributes" xdt:Locator="Match(name)"/>
    </connectionStrings>
  -->
  <entityFramework xdt:Transform="Replace">
    <defaultConnectionFactory type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.SqlConnectionFactory, EntityFramework">
      <parameters>
        <parameter value="Server=MyWebServer;Database=RunLog;Trusted_Connection=True; MultipleActiveResultSets=True" />
      </parameters>
    </defaultConnectionFactory>
  </entityFramework>

  <system.web>
    <compilation xdt:Transform="RemoveAttributes(debug)" />
    <!--
      In the example below, the "Replace" transform will replace the entire
      <customErrors> section of your web.config file.
      Note that because there is only one customErrors section under the
      <system.web> node, there is no need to use the "xdt:Locator" attribute.

      <customErrors defaultRedirect="GenericError.htm"
        mode="RemoteOnly" xdt:Transform="Replace">
        <error statusCode="500" redirect="InternalError.htm"/>
      </customErrors>
    -->
  </system.web>
</configuration>

Here is my web config file:

<!--
  For more information on how to configure your ASP.NET application, please visit
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169433
  -->
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <!-- For more information on Entity Framework configuration, visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=237468 -->
    <section name="entityFramework" type="System.Data.Entity.Internal.ConfigFile.EntityFrameworkSection, EntityFramework, Version=5.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" />
  </configSections>
  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5" />
    <httpRuntime targetFramework="4.5" />
  </system.web>
  <system.webServer>
    <handlers>
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_32bit" />
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_64bit" />
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-Integrated-4.0" />
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_32bit" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_isapi.dll" preCondition="classicMode,runtimeVersionv4.0,bitness32" responseBufferLimit="0" />
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_64bit" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_isapi.dll" preCondition="classicMode,runtimeVersionv4.0,bitness64" responseBufferLimit="0" />
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-Integrated-4.0" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" type="System.Web.Handlers.TransferRequestHandler" preCondition="integratedMode,runtimeVersionv4.0" />
    </handlers>
  </system.webServer>
  <entityFramework>
    <defaultConnectionFactory type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.SqlConnectionFactory, EntityFramework">
      <parameters>
        <parameter value="Data Source=(localdb)\v11.0; Integrated Security=True; MultipleActiveResultSets=True" />
      </parameters>
    </defaultConnectionFactory>
  </entityFramework>
</configuration>

Finally after i publish this is what my web config file looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
  For more information on how to configure your ASP.NET application, please visit
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169433
  -->
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <!-- For more information on Entity Framework configuration, visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=237468 -->
    <section name="entityFramework" type="System.Data.Entity.Internal.ConfigFile.EntityFrameworkSection, EntityFramework, Version=5.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" />
  </configSections>
  <system.web>
    <compilation targetFramework="4.5" />
    <httpRuntime targetFramework="4.5" />
  </system.web>
  <system.webServer>
    <handlers>
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_32bit" />
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_64bit" />
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-Integrated-4.0" />
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_32bit" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_isapi.dll" preCondition="classicMode,runtimeVersionv4.0,bitness32" responseBufferLimit="0" />
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_64bit" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_isapi.dll" preCondition="classicMode,runtimeVersionv4.0,bitness64" responseBufferLimit="0" />
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-Integrated-4.0" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" type="System.Web.Handlers.TransferRequestHandler" preCondition="integratedMode,runtimeVersionv4.0" />
    </handlers>
  </system.webServer>
  <entityFramework>
    <defaultConnectionFactory type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.SqlConnectionFactory, EntityFramework">
      <parameters>
        <parameter value="Server=MyWebServer;Database=RunLog;Trusted_Connection=True; MultipleActiveResultSets=True" />
      </parameters>
    </defaultConnectionFactory>
  </entityFramework>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="RunLog" connectionString="RunLog_ConnectionString" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>
</configuration>

If you look above you will see a connection string was added.

After some research i found that you can add a connection string durinig publish. Well i've been publishing with the same profile so i deleted the profile multiple times and created a new one and made sure to uncheck the box to add a connection string:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
This file is used by the publish/package process of your Web project. You can customize the behavior of this process
by editing this MSBuild file. In order to learn more about this please visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=208121. 
-->
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <WebPublishMethod>MSDeploy</WebPublishMethod>
    <SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />
    <MSDeployServiceURL>http://MyWebServer</MSDeployServiceURL>
    <DeployIisAppPath>My Web Site/Go</DeployIisAppPath>
    <RemoteSitePhysicalPath />
    <SkipExtraFilesOnServer>False</SkipExtraFilesOnServer>
    <MSDeployPublishMethod>RemoteAgent</MSDeployPublishMethod>
    <UserName>JohnBob</UserName>
    <_SavePWD>False</_SavePWD>
    <PublishDatabaseSettings>
      <Objects xmlns="">
        <ObjectGroup Name="RunLog" Order="1" Enabled="False">
          <Destination Path="" />
          <Object Type="DbCodeFirst">
            <Source Path="DBContext" DbContext="RunLog.DL.RunLogContext, RunLog.DL" Origin="Convention" />
          </Object>
        </ObjectGroup>
      </Objects>
    </PublishDatabaseSettings>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <MSDeployParameterValue Include="$(DeployParameterPrefix)RunLog-Web.config Connection String">
      <UpdateDestWebConfig>False</UpdateDestWebConfig>
    </MSDeployParameterValue>
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <_ConnectionStringsToInsert Include="RunLog" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

As you can see there is connection stuff in there but i specifically unchecked "use this connection string at runtime (update destination web config). If i delete the connection string that was added my site works perfectly.

Does anyone know whats going on?

Edit:
I thought maybe i was doing doing something wrong but after working through it tonight i'm thinking it my be a bug. I decided to rollback all my code and see if i could reproduce the problem. Previously in the "Package/Publish Web" tab in properties the "Include all database configured in the Package/Publish SQL Tab: is selected. In the "Package/Publish SQL" Tab there is one connection string defined in "database entries" but its blank. If i leave it as is and try to publish everything works perfectly. If i delete the connection string and re-add it things get messed up again. In the dialog you see above if the database section is blank everything works correctly when your creating a profile but if it has remote connection string box then things wont' work correctly

Answer 1

Add this project property to the .csproj file by editing the XML:

<Project>
  <PropertyGroup>

    <AutoParameterizationWebConfigConnectionStrings>false</AutoParameterizationWebConfigConnectionStrings>

    ...
  </PropertyGroup>
  ...
</Project>

Alternatively, use a Web Publishing Pipeline targets file as described in this related StackOverflow question.