@JonB I removed the last line...ie copy cmd of folder "Settings" and then I was able to build properly in release mode.

Since this is pretty old, the solution is to at the bottom of the .pri file to use the export function. For every QMAKE key word you need an export for it.
In my above example I should append the following to the bottom:

export(PRE_TARGETDEPS)
export(QMAKE_EXTRA_TARGETS)

@kshegunov

I've tried that too ... but I see what I'm doing wrong. I guess you have to manually run qmake every time you delete the folder to test it or else it won't update the condition. I just kept rebuilding it, which didn't work. Thanks. Guess one of my previous conditions would have worked for this as well.

@Technologist If your kit is now fine (no errors/warnings), then it should work. Just try.

@JohanSolo said:

IIRC the makefiles are not automatically generated when the pro file is changed. You have to explicitely run qmake.

That's correct.

Or, you can simply delete the build folder.

Easy: just edit the thread title and prepend [solved] :)