Memory wipe

I'm placing these droids in your care. Treat them well. Clean them up. Have the protocol droid's mind wiped.Bail Organa, to Raymus Antilles

A memory wipe, also known as a memory flush, was a procedure that totally erased one's memory. In most of the galaxy, memory wipes were used on droids. All databanks, except for basic factory-installed programming, were "wiped" clean. A memory wipe was performed with a memory flush unit. Sentient individuals could also undergo a memory wipe. It was also possible to wipe the memories of shipboard computer systems.

Purpose

A very wise person believes those children are our last hope, and no-one can know that they exist—not even me! So you see, there really is a very good reason why my memory has to be erased. And yours.C-3PO, to a RA-7 protocol droid information specialist

C-3PO memroy wipe 2 — C-3PO activates his own memory wipe to protect Padmé Amidala's children

Through their everyday experiences, droids would gradually begin to develop personality and independence, even overriding their programming. Most droid owners did not want this, so they prevented it by performing regular memory wipes. Droids tended to dread the procedure.

Some evidence, however, suggested that not performing memory wipes could have beneficial effects. One such benefit was that the droid became better at inferring the wishes of its master, increasing its efficiency and accuracy. Also, droids with accumulated memories were often more effective because of their increased practical knowledge and real-world familiarity. Technicians working on Luke Skywalker's X-wing found that because Skywalker refused to wipe R2-D2's memory, the droid was needed to decipher diagnostics from the X-wing; at the same time, communication between Artoo and the ship had greatly improved over time.

Similarly, Skywalker refused to perform regular memory wipes on the computer of the X-wing itself, despite it being standard New Republic procedure. As such, because the computer had spent much time communicating with R2-D2, it began to model itself after R2-D2's personality. This resulted in excellent operational speed and efficiency, but had the side effect that maintenance computers were no longer able to communicate with it.^[3]

History

Because if a memory wipe isn't done correctly—and thoroughly—then there's a lot of little, disconnected pieces left over. Scraps of memory, right around the edges of the dark. And bit by bit, those memories can link up with each other, and with things that can bring back even more memories from the shadows. And then—like I said—everything comes back.Kateel of Kuhlvult describes a sentient memory wipe

C-3PO memory wipe — C-3PO re-experiencing every memory as it is being deleted by the memory wipe

The periodic application of memory wipes became commonplace sometime after 200 BBY, when a cybersociologist of the Baobab Merchant Fleet accidentally created a personality algorithm that ran rampant as a virus through the droid population.

During the days of the Old Republic a criminal organization called the Syndicat created a memory-wiping device for living beings. The Syndicat used this device to wipe the memories of the natives of Phindar who defied them, as a punishment. Obi-Wan Kenobi nearly had his memory erased, however, after surrounding his memories with the Force, he became the only being to ever withstand the memory wipe. It was destroyed by the natives in the battle that brought the end of the Syndicat in 44 BBY.

Bail Organa ordered Raymus Antilles to wipe C-3PO's memory to ensure the true lineage of Leia Organa remained unknown. However, an image of a nine-year-old boy—the droid's maker, Anakin Skywalker—somehow survived the wipe. Years later, after the mention of Obi-Wan Kenobi's name, Owen Lars told Luke Skywalker to wipe the memory of two recently acquired droids—Threepio and Artoo—as part of a routine procedure. The wipe, however, was never performed.

Wedge Antilles had the memories of his astromech droid, Mynock, wiped after finding that in battle situations the droid's screaming was too much of a distraction. The technicians wiped Mynock's memory, and made a number of other improvements which resulted in the droid being re-designated R5-G8. Wedge then renamed the droid Gate.

In one instance, Kodir of Kuhlvult, a Kuati noblewoman, secretly arranged to have a memory wipe performed on her sister, Kateel of Kuhlvult, who did not support Kodir's ambitions to seize control of Kuat Drive Yards. However, the intermediary responsible for arranging the procedure fleeced Kodir by pocketing her credits and attempting to perform the memory wipe independently rather than hiring a specialist. That decision resulted in Kateel slowly but surely regaining her memory.^[4]