recompile needed in project navigator

None replied !!! let me define the problem more

I have to run synthesis on a certain machine that has a license for encrypted source files but this machine is slow one, it's a dual core machine, the tool do not check the license in the fitting phase so i can run quartus_fit on another machine which has 4 cores. I then need to check for the license again in the assembly phase "quartus_asm" so i return back to the machine that has the license. When i finally open the project navigator and program the device through signal tab it tells me recompile the project to continue !!! it sees the project not compiled although i have successfully compiled it using terminal on two machines as i stated above

How the project navigator updates the status of the project, to know if it has been compiled or not ?

thanks in advance