googles 50,000 restriction, what happens after that?

I am not yet at that point, but very close.

Are multiple files automatically sent once you get past the setting of 50,000 or whatever your setting is?

I havent worried about it up until now, but I want to know what to do before it is too late.

Yep. I currently have 8 sitemap files (should cross over into 9 in the next day or two). I have them all added to my Google Webmaster account.

The auto-notify sends the index file, which contains information on any/all of your additional sitemap files. So technically, you don't need to add all the individual ones, but I do just to be safe.

cool, so other than manually submitting the links to the google account, the software does the rest for me.

I was fearing having to set this all up myself.

hmm you do have to add every sitemap file to your google account? thought the sitemap file contains a hint for google to automatically spider the other files?

i have 34 files now... would be a bad job to add them all? :S

should the sitemap_index be there to do this job automatically?

Yes, the index should, but adding them all makes Google start pulling them down sooner. (In my case anyway.)

me to ... the sitemap_index has not worked after a few weeks.
After submitting all 34 sitemaps to google it runs like hell