For anyone still struggling, I have found a solution. The problem is in the Cordova settings.
Note this:
iPhone Distribution has been manually specified
This didn’t make any sense to me, since I had set the project to auto sign in xcode. Like you, the check and uncheck didn’t work. But then I read the last file path given and followed it. The file path is APP > Platforms > ios > Cordova > build-release.xconfig
And in the file, iPhone Distribution is explicitly set for CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY.
Change:
CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY = iPhone Distribution
CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY[sdk=iphoneos*] = iPhone Distribution
To:
CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY = iPhone Developer
CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY[sdk=iphoneos*] = iPhone Developer
It a simple thing, and the error message does make it clear that iPhone Distribution has been manually specified, but it doesn’t really say where unless you follow the path. I looked and fiddled with xcode for about three hours trying to figure this out. Hopes this helps anyone in the future.