lsusb doesn't show anything

When I use lsusb to find out if my usb wifi is plugged in it doesn't show anything.
I know all my usb ports work because I have used them keyboard, mouse etc.  When I plug in a usb drive it automatically shows up on the desktop without any problems.
Don't know where to go with this.

Thanks

Some new wifi dongles do not show at all using lsusb, so i do not bother using them due to the stinking suspicion that they are some type of "software emulated" cr@p.
Small black TP-Link ones do not work, white older ones work perfectly well, new ones with a big antenna work but signal is much weaker than the white ones without antenna.
You can try:
sudo lsubs
But i doubt it will help as even if it does show, it will most probably require a lot of messing about to get it to work.
BTW, are you sure the adapter works? Did you try it on Windows?

Odd. It does show up with "dmesg" when I plug it in. But nothing shows under lsusb.

[ 33.280022] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 81.184017] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 129.344018] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 177.632013] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 522.832019] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 1221.844025] usb 1-4: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd
[ 1221.977579] usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=2357, idProduct=011f
[ 1221.977583] usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 1221.977587] usb 1-4: Product: 802.11ac WLAN Adapter
[ 1221.977590] usb 1-4: Manufacturer: Realtek
[ 1221.977592] usb 1-4: SerialNumber: 00e04c000001
Not so concerned with TP-Link wifi as I plan to get rid of it, not worth the bother.
Just using this as a learning experience with installing and uninstalling packages and being able to check ports.

Thanks