A method and apparatus for generating an unordered list, a method for managing images and a terminal device are disclosed. The method for generating the unordered list includes: randomly acquiring a first element from an ordered list and inserting the first element into the unordered list; cycling the execution of the following steps in a case where a number of current elements in the unordered list is smaller than a sum of elements in the ordered list: determining whether a position at which the first element is located is an edge position in the ordered list and randomly acquiring a second element from the ordered list based on a determining result, and randomly acquiring a target position from the unordered list and inserting the second element into the target position in the unordered list; and ending the cyclic execution in a case where the number of the elements in the unordered list is equal to the sum of the elements in the ordered list.